Valuable Lessons I Learned from Social Media on Starting and Running an Internet Business
Let us move beyond impression marketing and receiving impressions
I never understood the need to exchange content for likes. It bewilders me.
But hey, hear me out. I am not a social media virgin, so to speak. I started LinkedIn in 2018, YouTube in 2019, and Twitter in 2020 to connect with people and understand how these platforms work.
I am proud to amass a following of 13,000+ on Linkedin, 650+ on Twitter, and 150+ on YouTube without gaming the algorithm. However, recently, it occurred to me that there is tremendous invisible value in understanding social media.
Growing Our Social Media Accounts Gives Us a Headstart in Growing an Internet Business
We need to see the big picture before spitting on the Big Tech companies for turning us into digital addicts. I did. I realized that the big picture is the Internet Business.
There are thousands of definitions of Internet Business online. I like this one from Law Insider.
“… (a) an information, navigation and content aggregation service distributed… through the Internet… a combination of all or substantially all of the following: Internet searching, content aggregation, topical interest categories and web directories, (b) a broad-based community service distributed, all or substantially all, through the Internet that offers its members homepages, e-mail and chat rooms and may offer…”
The core of Internet Business shines brightly in this definition. It also identifies a giant distribution infrastructure, ready to deliver our content to existing consumers.
And it begets the question. Like social media, why do Internet Businesses require a strong distribution network?
That is because they represent a volume play. The more, the merrier.
Playing the Social Media Game Well Allows Us to Understand the Business of Volume
Say you are a YouTuber. Or an Instagram influencer. Maybe you want to be one tomorrow. If so, these metrics represent your market and competition.
Professional Individual Creators (~2M+) — Making content full-time
- YouTube: Of the 31M channels on YouTube, ~1M creators have over 10K subscribers.
- Instagram: Of the 1bn accounts on Instagram, ~500K have over 100k followers and are considered active influencers.
Amateur Individual Creators (~46.7M) — Monetizing content creation part-time
- YouTube: Of the 31M channels on YouTube, ~12M have between 100 –10K subscribers.
- Instagram: Of the 1bn accounts on Instagram, ~30M have between 50 –100K followers.
Your potential consumers are measured in 6 digits. Your ready-made competitors are indexed in millions and billions. This is no child’s play.
In fact, social media exposes us to business realities. There are terabytes of content floating around the internet, competing for eyeballs and (subsequent) conversion-to-sales.
We start by understanding the needs and demands of millions online if we want to excel in our chosen Internet Business domain. The best part? We do not need to start from zero.
Social media is there, ready for your study.
Building the Foundations of Your Internet Business
Let us drop our social evil biases towards social media for now.
I will bootstrap the commercial value of social media down to its essence, so we can take what we need to build an Internet Business of our choice.
The Unfounded Worry on Lack of Customers
First, there is no need to worry about potential customers in the digital space. You do not actually worry about users on LinkedIn before you create an account, do you?
According to Smart Insights,
- More than half of the world now uses social media (58.4%).
- 4.62 billion people around the world now use social media, 424 million new users have come online within the last 12 months.
- The average daily time spent using social media is 2h 27m.
The same trajectory applies to the Internet. The World Wide Web is the fastest-growing segment of the Internet, growing at 3,000 percent annually.
People are online because they are hungry for fresh information, proven how-to’s, and well-articulated insights. Don’t focus on the numbers.
Instead, focus on what you can offer to every internet dweller to make their lives slightly better after consuming your work.
On Obsession with Competition
Next, you are not likely to beat your competition. Have you actually tried outcompeting the social media influencers of your favorite platform?
Peter Thiel spilled the beans many years ago. Software adoption (analogous to the Internet Business) starts linear and goes exponential. The social media influencer with 248k followers is more likely to hit 249k in a week while we struggle to add 100 more followers to our 3-digit account in a month.
If you cannot beat them, forget about them.
I suggest we learn from those before us and focus on producing our best work online. High-quality work never goes out of fashion.
In short, look inwards, not outwards.
Forget About Trend Following. You Get Tired From Running in All Directions.
Attempting to ride on the latest trends will frustrate you because they might be over before you know what is going on. Remember those days when we are trying to game the social media algorithm? Stay clear of that slippery slope.
Here’s why. The Internet is constantly changing. Take, for instance, one segment of the Internet known as Keyword Search. What we search for is driven by our daily needs and interests in global events. It is a representation of dynamic equilibrium. It continues going, whether you like it or not.
You will go bonkers if you are always on the chase.
Ditch trend-following and build an Internet Business based on your aspirations. You may want to run a copywriting academy in the future because you are a freelance copywriter today. Stick to that.
Summary
The value of social media is not in the impression metrics. It is not even about the social media platforms per se. And no, it has nothing to do with likes, comments, trolls, or reshares.
It is about running an Internet Business of our choice.
The Internet, like an ever-expanding universe, is unbelievably gigantic beyond description. As such, there will be millions and billions of competitors and customers. Focusing on these external elements will distract us and not help us build our Internet empire.
I suggest this.
Focus on doing our best work. Be proud of what we can do and do well. Because building our own Internet Business is an infinite game that never ends.
As a content contributor, I write my observations from daily life and my business exposure. Because our life experience is the bedrock of our unique perspectives.
